Student Resource Package – Targeted Initiatives

Tutor Learning Initiative (Reference 129)

The Tutor Learning Initiative (TLI) provides funding for schools to employ tutors to provide small group learning support to students identified as needing additional support in literacy and numeracy.

For further information on the TLI, refer to the department's policy on the Tutor Learning Initiative.

Eligibility

The following school types are eligible for TLI funding:

• Primary
• Secondary
• Primary/Secondary combined
• Specialist
• Language.

The following schools and school types are not eligible for TLI funding:

• camp schools, irrespective of their listed school type (that is, 'Camp' school types, Somers School Camp, Outdoor School, Rubicon Outdoor School)
• Victorian School of Languages
• Parkville College
• Centre for Higher Education Studies
• Monash Children’s Hospital School
• selective entry high schools (that is, John Monash Science School, MacRobertson Girls High School, Melbourne High School, Nossal High School, Suzanne Cory High School).

Funding

Funding will be provided directly to schools as a specific purpose payment through a credit allocation in their Student Resource Package (SRP). Enrolment data collected during the February 2024 census was used to update the TLI allocation to schools in the 2024 Confirmed SRP and 2024 Revised SRP.

Schools must only use their TLI funding for the provision of the TLI, which is to employ tutors to provide targeted small group instruction to students identified as needing additional support in literacy and numeracy.

This funding includes tutor on-costs for superannuation and payroll tax. When hiring staff, it is important to factor in these on-costs as they are not separately itemised within the budget. Schools can choose to use additional funds, for example through Equity Social Disadvantage, to expand delivery of the TLI program within the school.

Calculation

Primary, secondary, and primary/secondary combined schools

Primary, secondary and primary/secondary combined schools are funded based on the number of students requiring additional learning support in literacy and numeracy, where the per student rate is equivalent to the cost of delivering a standard tutor learning program (3 sessions of 45 minutes per week, for groups of 5 students), for 20 weeks) by a Classroom Teacher 2-3 as according to the Victorian Government Schools Agreement.

The minimum funding allocation is set at $26,500 per annum for primary schools and $30,000 per annum for secondary schools, funding approximately 0.2 FTE, ensuring schools have sufficient funding to deliver at least 4 groups of small-group intervention, 2 each for reading and numeracy.

Per student rates

Primary (Prep to Year 6 including primary ungraded) per funded student rate: $1,247.32.

Secondary (Year 7 to Year 12 including secondary ungraded) per funded student rate: $1,415.66.

Number of eligible students

2023 NAPLAN data is used to identify students assessed as Needs Additional Support (NAS) in Reading and/or Numeracy and Exempt students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9.

This is then used to extrapolate out and estimate the number of students needing literacy and/or numeracy support for the year levels with no new NAPLAN data.

For the purposes of funding, it is assumed that students absent from NAPLAN follow the school level distribution of NAS and Exempt students. The number of absent students is multiplied by the school level average percentage of NAS and Exempt students. The calculated percentage of absent students estimated to be NAS is then also extrapolated out to year levels with no new NAPLAN data to account for the additional estimated need.

For schools with no students who sat NAPLAN in 2023 (for example, very small primary schools without students in years 3 and 5), the corresponding system average % of NAS and Exempt students for primary or secondary year levels will be used.

For senior secondary schools, in 2024, the year 9 system average % of NAS and Exempt students is used to calculate funding. It is intended that this will transition to actual school data in future years once sufficient NAPLAN data for students attending senior secondary schools is available.

Funding formula

Primary

Provided if Primary enrolment > 0

Primary funding = Max of [Primary floor $26,500]

or

[Primary funded count × Primary per student rate]

Secondary

Provided if Secondary enrolment > 0

Secondary funding = Max of [Secondary floor $30,000]

or

[Secondary funded count × Secondary per student rate]

Combined

Total school funding = primary funding + secondary funding

School example

School A has 300 students. Students are distributed across the primary year levels, with 50 students in Year 3, 50 students in Year 5, and 200 students in the other primary year levels.

Students who have sat NAPLAN

At School A, there were 15 students who were NAS/Exempt in Reading and 25 students who were NAS/Exempt in Numeracy:

• Year 3 Reading: 5 students
• Year 5 Reading: 10 students
• Year 3 Numeracy: 11 students
• Year 5 Numeracy: 14 students

School A will receive funding for 40 students across reading and numeracy.

Students who have not sat NAPLAN

The percentage of students who need additional support in reading and numeracy is extrapolated out to the other year levels.

For School A, this is 15% of students for reading and 25% of students for Numeracy.

School A has 200 students in year levels which have not yet sat the new NAPLAN, so extrapolating out works out to be 15% × 200 + 25% × 200 = 80 students.

Additionally, School A had 10 absent students in both reading and numeracy. Therefore, next multiply the school level average percentage of students requiring TLI support by the number of absent students. In School A this works out to be 10 × 15% + 10 × 25% = 4 students.

This is then extrapolated out to the other year levels by using the school absent % × school funded %. For School A, extrapolated absences to the other year levels would result in in 10% × 15% × 200 = 3 students funded for reading and 10% × 25% × 200 = 5 students funded for numeracy, which adds up to 3 + 5 = 8 students.

Therefore, out of the students who have not yet sat the new NAPLAN, an additional 80 + 4 + 8 = 92 students have been projected as needing additional support in reading or numeracy.

Total funding

The total number of students in School A attracting funding is 40 + 92 = 132 students.

Total funding amount is thus 132 × per student rate = 132 × $1,247.32 = $164,646.64

As this is higher than the funding floor for the primary component of $26,500, School A will receive $164,646.64 as their final TLI allocation.

Special and language schools

The funding model for specialist and language schools will remain the same as the previous (2023) TLI funding model, with updated floor amounts.

Funding formula

Primary years and primary age equivalents

Provided if Primary enrolment > 0

Primary funding = Max of [Primary floor $26,500]

or

[Pri_total_enrol × Pri_enrol_rate + Pri_SD_enrol × Pri_SD_enrol_rate]

Secondary years and secondary age equivalents

Provided if Secondary enrolment > 0

Secondary funding = Max of [Secondary floor $30,000]

or

[Sec_total_enrol × Sec_enrol_rate + Sec_SD_enrol × Sec_SD_enrol_rate]

Combined primary and secondary years or age equivalents

Total school funding = primary funding + secondary funding

Rates for special and language schools

Primary per student rate: $157.98 (referenced as Pri_total_rate in calculation above).

Secondary per student rate: $178.77 (referenced as Sec_total_rate in calculation above).

Special social disadvantage per student rate: $424.96 (referenced as Pri_SD_enrol_rate in calculation above).

Special secondary social disadvantage per student rate*: $480.88 (referenced as Sec_SD_enrol_rate in calculation above).

Accountability

Schools are required to:

• ensure eduPay records are updated by coding tutors as they are recruited. Schools must code tutors using the TLI code: 80026. Note that if tutors are being appointed from the school’s existing staff, their tutoring FTE must be re-coded to the TLI code: 80026 using a General Ledger (GL) override on eduPay
• ensure students participating in TLI are identified in CASES21, including if the focus of support is literacy or numeracy
• utilise an approved template for tutors to record students’ learning goals
• support evaluation and monitoring of the initiative.

More information

For further information, please contact tutor@education.vic.gov.au